Method of carding cotton



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

JQV. PALMER.

METHOD OT CARDIN@ OOTTON.

Patented June 25 l(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.,

' J. V. PALMER.

METHOD 0F GARDING COTTON.

vPaemzed June 25, 1889.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JESSE V. PALMER, OF GREENVICH, NEW YORK.

Nl ETHOD OF CARDING COTTON.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 405,904, dated June 25, 1889.

Application filed December 27, 1888. Serial No. 294,757. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

.Be it known that I, JESSE V. PALMER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Greenwich, in the county of lVashington and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in the Method of Carding Cotton, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the preparation of cotton for spinning in the production of cotton yarn for use in the manufacture of' knit underwear and hosiery; and the invention consists in a method of' preparing cotton for spinning, which consists in carding on cottoncards and doubling the cotton, as usual in the carding of cotton, and delivering' it from the can of the doubler, railway-head, or drawingframe either direct to a wool-finishing card or to a rubbing and winding apparatus intermediate said can and wool-finishing card, as hereinafter set forth.

In carrying my invention into effect I prefer to employ between the doubler, railwayhead, or drawing -frame and the wool-finishing card an apparatus comprising an upper and a lower series of rollers that reciprocate endwise or longitudinally in opposite directions, and in their rotation carry belts 0r aprons for rubbing and condensing the cotton slivers as they are passed onward to the take-up or winding roller or spool, on which they are wound preparatory to being subjected to the action of the woolfinishing card. This apparatus for rubbing and winding the slivers is illustrated in the annexed drawings, in which- `Figure l is a plan, and Fig. 2 a vertical longitudinal section, of such apparatus, partly in section. Eig. 3 is a diagram of the gearing for rotating the rollers that carry the aprons between which the slivers are rubbed.

In the preparation of wool for manufacture into yarns it commonly is passed through a first breaker-card, a second breaker-card, and a finisher-card, being delivered by the latter in the form of rovings ready to be spun into yarn. In the first breaker-card the wool after having been acted upon by the worker-rolls' and accumulated on the doffer to form t-he iieece is combed from the latter, and the loosely-compacted sliver is wound or coiled upon a roller or spool. A number of spools contain ing slivers from the first breaker-card are placed upon the creel at the feeding end of the second breaker, which is similar in construction to the rst, and delivers the material in the form of a sliver, which is similarly wound upon a roll or spool. The slivers from K rial as it passes around with the main cylinder is subjected to the action of a series of worker-rolls whose surfaces rotate in close proximity to that of the main cylinder.

In a cotton-carding machine the material is carried by the main cylinder past a series of bars or iiats having toothed surfaces adjacent to the surface of the main cylinder, and either mounted in fixed supports or carried by ban ds or chains by the movement of which they are slowly traversed around a portion of the circumference of the main cylinder.

Cotton-carding machines are provided with automatically-operating devices by which the top-fi ats are raised in predetermined order and cleansed of the accumulation of dirt and short fibers that lodge among the teeth thereof, the cleaning or stripping being' performed during the regular working of the feed.

In the case of wool-cards,- where it is desired to clean or strip the same, the machines have to be stopped and the various rollers separately cleaned by hand.

The doubler, railway-head, and drawingframe, referred to herein, are of ordinaryconstruction, which is so well known that it need n ot be illustrated or further referred to.

IIeretofore in the manufacture of cotton yarn for knit underwear and hosiery the fleece has been prepared on a lapper for the first breaker wool-card, and the slivers from such card have ordinarily been spooled onto a large spool for the second breaker wool-card,

IOO

In some cases where the cotton has been passed through wool breaker and finisher cards it has first been passed through a cotton-card. However, whenever the cotton is passed through a breaker-card, lthe partial twisting of the fibers around the axis of the sliver formed from the fleece delivered from the breaker-card results in the fibers being strained or broken in the recarding operation, or at least their strength being impaired. Moreover, should for any reason the sliver not pass uniformly through the trumpet of the breaker-card it will be formed with uneven portions, resulting in defective yarn. Thev cost of running the various machines referred to, it may be added, is considerable. These objections I obviate by employing a cotton-cardingv machine of any ordinary or well-known construction, a doubler, railwayhead, or drawing-frame, and a ywool-finishing card, either without a rubbing mechanism between the doubler and finishing-card, as hereinafter explained, or in connection with an apparatus located between the doubler and the woolfinishing card, for the purpose of rubbing and winding the slivers for said wool-finishing card, the wool-breaker cards being dispensed with, thereby avoiding all all unnecessary strain on the slivers, effecting a thorough separation of leaves, seeds, and other extraneous matter by means of the cotton-carding mechanism, and producing compact, evenly-rubbed, and separately-disposed slivers, which are smoothly wound in readiness for the action of the wool-finishing card preparatory to spinning. By this treatment I can employ a lower grade of cotton and produce a better quality of yarn than can be produced vby the use of wool-carding machinery throughout.

With some high grades of cotton having extra long staple and little waste I find that the rubbing can be omitted and the cotton be fed to the wool-finishing card direct from the cans that receive the slivers from the doubler or drawing-frame. This can be done by employing between the can of the doubler or drawing-frame and the Wool-card the well-known Apperly feed (shown in Letters Patent to Apperly and Clissold, No. 18,888, dated December 22, 1857) heretofore employed only fortaking the sliver from a woollthe main driving-shaft.

breaker card to another breaker-card orto a wool-finisher card.

By subjecting the slivers to aY rubbing action before they are subjected to the nal carding operation the fibers are made compact or are condensed, made smooth and cylindrical, much stronger, and better enabled to withstand the drawing action of the winding mechanism and the subsequent unwinding and feeding to the wool-finishing card.

In the accompanying drawings I have shown a rubbing and winding or take-up mechanism adapted for use in practicing my inventon.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1 designates a suitable frame provided on one side with laterally-projecting guides 2 for upper and lower horizontal cross heads or plates 3 and 4, carrying journal-boxes 5, in each of which is engaged one end of a rub-roll shaft, there being two series of rub-rollers 6, an upper series and a lower series, arranged and actuated in a manner similar to that described in Letters Patent No. 238,329, granted to James Barker, March 1, 1881. The opposite ends of the several rub-roll shafts are looselyl featheredin pinions 7,which are driven by gears 8 and 9, and anintermediate gear 10 from a pinion 11 on a main driving-shaft 12, that is suitably supported at the lower part of the machine-frame and provided with fast and loose pulleys 13 and 14, as usual. The cross-heads or horizontal plates 3 and 4 are respectively connected with oppositely arranged eccentrics 15 and 16 on a vertical shaft y 17, that is supported in suitable bearings, and provided near its lower end with a miter-gear 18, that is driven through a similar gear 19 on By means of the shafts 12 and 17, gears 18 and 19, and oppositely-arranged eccentrics 15 and 16 the crossheads 3 and 4 and connected upper and lower series of rub-rolls 6 are alternately reciprocated in opposite directions, the connection IOO of the rub-roll shafts withthe pinions 7 being i such that the several rub-rolls will have imparted to them a simultaneous rotary and endwise movement. rub-rolls 7 in the upper series and four in the lower series, and in each series said rolls are connected in pairs by endless aprons or broad belts 20, extending the entire length of the several pairs of rolls. These rub-rolls 7 and their endless aprons 2O are arranged in such proximity that the lower surfaces of the aprons in the upper series and the upper surfaces of the aprons in the lower series are nearly in contact, and as these nearly-contacting surfaces are caused tomovc in the same direction it is obvious that they will feed forward the slivers that are delivered to them, as presently explained. At the same .time the endwise or longitudinal reciprocation of the IIO As shown, there are four upper and lower series of rub-rolls 7 in oppowill cause a rubbing action to be exerted on the slivers, whereby they are compacted or condensed, increased in strength, and made smooth and somewhat cylindrical. If desired, the aprons 2O may be provided with tightening-rollers 20, as shown in Fig. 2.

The slivers that are acted on as above described are delivered to the aprons 2O from cans 2l, that received said slivers from the doubler, railway-head, or drawing -frame, which latter mechanism, being Well known, does not require illust-ration.

The cans 2l, after receiving the slivers, are placed in parallel rows, as shown in Fig. l, beneath a series of guides 22, that are supported horizontally in the machine-frame l at the feed end of the aprons 20, which guides 22 consist of parallel slats or bars having eyes 23 for the passage of the slivers. Each guide-bar is provided with as many guideeyes 23 as there are cans in the row immediately beneath said bar, one guide-eye being over some part of each can, and the guideeyes of the several bars are so located and arranged that no guide-eye of any bar will be in line with a guide-eye of another bar. It will thus be seen that the several slivers will be delivered from the cans 2l in different lines, lapping by each other and separately disposed throughout their entirelengtlnthus obviating contact between the slivers and keeping them apart, so that they will be rubbed separately but simultaneously. Above each guide-bar 22, parallel with and slightly in advance of its guide-eyes 23, is a feedroller 24, and on one. end of each of these feed-rollers is a ruiter-gear 25, meshing` with one of a series of miter-gears 26 on a shaft 27, supported longitudinally at one side of the machine-frame. One of the feed-rollers 24 has the opposite end of its shaft extended and provided with a sprocket-gear 2S, through which all the feed-rollers are driven by means of a chain belt 29 from a sprocket-gear 30 on a shaft or stud carrying a spur-gear 3l, that receives motion from a pinion 32 on the main driving-shaft. The slivers are thus fed to the apron 2O by and over the feed-rollers 24, and, if desired, the said `feed-rollers may be supplemented by pressure-rollers 24, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, though these pressure-rollers are not essential. If desired, a guide-bar 33, having eyes or openings for the passage of the slivers, may be arranged between the feed-rollers 24 and the rubbingaprons.

On one end of the driving-shaft l2 is a pinion 34, through which is driven a spur-gear 35 on a short shaft or stud carrying a sprocketgear 36, which is connected by a chain belt 37 with a sprocket-gear 3S on the extended end of a shaft 39, that is journaled in the frame 40 of a winding o1' take-up machine located in advance of or near the delivery end of the rubbing mechanism hereinbefore described. The opposite end of the shaft 39 carries a band-wheel 4l, that is connected by a band or belt 42 with band-wheels 43 on the shafts of two rollers 44, that are journaled side by side in the upper part of the windingmachine frame. The ends of this windingmachine frame are providedwith verticallyslotted standards 45 for receiving the journals of a winding-roller 46, that is located just above and between the rollers 44, which thus serve as a bed for said winding-roller and for the slivers wound thereon. One of rollers 44 has its shaft extended at one end and provided with a miter-gear 47, that drives a miter-gear 4S on the shaft of a disk 49, which is suitably supported at one end of the winding-machine and connected by a pitman to a reciprocating bar 51, supported in guideways 52 on the rear of said machine. This reciprocating bar 5l is provided with vertical guide-pins 53, between which the slivers from the rubbing mechanism are de livcred to the winding-roller, a holding-down roller 54 being located in front of the guidepins 53 for the purpose of preventing the ends of the slivers from flying upward. The winding-roller 46 receives motion from frictional contact with the rollers 44 and rises in the slotted standards 45 as the slivers are wound. It will be observed that the reciprocating movement of thc bar 51,with attached guidepins 53, between which the slivers pass, results in causing said slivers to be laid on the winding-roller 4G in waving or serpentine lines lapping over each other without coming in parallel contact, and thus making a solid spool. Then the winding-rolleris filled, it is removed by breaking out, as usual, and re placed by another, while the filled roller taken from the winding-machine is carried to the wool-finishing card, to which the slivers are fed in the usual' way. The wool-finishing card delivers the slivers to the jack-spools ready for spinning into yarn.

lVhile I have illustrated appropriate mechanism for rubbing the slivers before delivering them to the wool-finishing card, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to the use of the mechanism described and shown, as any other suitable rubbing devices may be employed, and in some cases, as before mentioned, the rubbing of the cotton at this point can be omitted and the slivers be fed direct to the wool-iinishing card from the cans 2l, in which they are deposited by the doubler, railway-head, or drawing-frame.

Vhat I claim as my invention isy l. rlhe method of preparing cotton for spinning, which consists in carding and doubling the same, as usual, and delivering the slivers from the can of the doubler, railway-head, or drawing-frame to a wool-iinishing card, substantially as described.

2. The method of preparing cotton for spin- IOO IIO

ISO

ning, which consists in earding f4nd doubling last oarding operation, and Jthen subjecting 1o the same, as usual, then i rubbing the slivers the bers to 2L final oarding operation, subseparately, and then subjecting them to Jnhe stantially as described. action of a Wool-finishing card, substantially In testimony whereof I `have affixed mysig- 5 as described.' nature in presence of two Witnesses.

3. The method of preparing cotton for Spin- JESSE V. PALMER. ning', which cons-ists in earding on cotton- Witnesses: cards, doubling the slivers, as usual, rubbing JAMES L. NORRIS,

the doubled slivers separately previous to the J AMES A. RUTHERFORD. 

